91 P. 469 | Or. | 1907
Opinion by
Attention is called to what appears to be an error made by the party who drew the findings and decree for the trial court. We find no data from which the lower court determined the angles of the shore line of plaintiff .and defendant, and it is incorrectly expressed, viz., plaintiff’s shore line base as 58 deg. north of east undoubtedly was intended as north 58 deg. east, the perpendicular to which is north 32 deg. west; and the same as to the defendant’s shore line base, found as 48 deg. north of east, the perpendicular to which is north 42 deg. west, and the court’s conclusion therefrom that the division -line between plaintiff and defendant is 53 deg. west of north undoubtedly is a mistake, and was intended as north 37 deg. west, which bisects the angle between the said two perpendiculars. By this correction the finding of the court is intelligible. Otherwise the court gives to the plaintiff an angle of 26 deg. 12 min. greater than it asks.
1. It is not necessary to pass upon the question whether or not the defendant acquired, by adverse possession, title to any of the water front wegt of the east line of the property conveyed to Hume, as none of it is in dispute here, and can have no bearing upon plaintiff’s right east of such line. Plaintiff’s silence as to its claim that the division line between plaintiff' and defendant should deviate from a due north course, or whether or not it used or had a map made, showing recognition of a due north line of division, does not preclude plaintiff now from proving the true line, as there has been no conduct amounting to estoppel. Defendant’s claim that the various city plats of Astoria recognize the division of the water front upon north and south lines is without force. Bach shore owner, in platting. his land into lots and blocks, has platted the same approximately' perpendicular with' the shore, and in all but one case this results in extending such division lines clue north into the water front. Although the general course
2. A proper division in all cases is that each shore, owner shall have a proportionate share of the deep-water frontage, and the rules adopted by' the courts in relation thereto are with that end in view: 4 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (2 ed.), 828; Deerfield v. Pliny Arms, 17 Pick 41 (28 Am. Dec. 276); Blodgett Lum. Co. v. Peters, 87 Mich. 498 (49 N. W. 917: 24 Am. St. Rep. 175); Williams v. Lane, 87 Wis. 152 (58 N. W. 77). The difference in such rules, as announced by different courts, is evidently due to the varying conditions in each case more than to the diversity of opinion as to equitable methods. The rule applicable to property situated in a cove, as adopted in Rust v. Boston Mill Corp. 6 Pick. 158, followed in several states, and relied upon by defendant here, is fair and equitable in eases where it can be applied, hut will not apply here for the reason that this shore cannot properly be considered a cove. The headlands are probably four miles apart, and, being projections at the extremes of a long and irregular shore line, make such a basis of division impracticable: Thornton v. Grant, 10 R. I. 477 (14 Am. Rep. 701): Neither is it practicable to take the current of the stream as the basis from which to determine the division line. The township along the front of which Astoria is situated is a peninsula, extending into the river, having sheltered bodies of water on either side called bays. In front of the peninsula the river is very wide, probably three or four miles, the tide rising nine or more feet, and- therefore we consider that the line of deep water frontage should be the basis
In the present ease the government of the United States has established a pier head line at. deep water adjacent to this property, and we believe a proper and • equitable division of such deep water frontage will be to draw a line from such pier head line at right angles thereto to meet the .division line between plaintiff and defendant at the shore. ' This is the rule adopted in 12 E. I. 370, above quoted. The government pier head line established in 1890 appears to have an angle in front of plain
The cause will therefore be remanded to the lower court to ascertain the course of the government pier head line established in 1903, to establish the division line therefrom between plaintiff and defendant, as above indicated, and to enter decree thereon.
3. Neither party shall recover costs on this appeal.
MoÜIFIED.